Poll: Should they legalize pot?

[Jonesy911]

Any kind of drug should be made illegal, be it cigarettes, alcohol, or marijuana. Unfortunately because the US is so deeply rooted in the tobacco industry it is hard to make it illegal, and back in the 20's with prohibition we all saw that the banning of alcohol was bad. THESE drugs haven't been, and wont be illegality because they're already widely used and accepted in society. Marijuana on the other hand is known as the gateway drug, and is illegal for many reasons. Not the least of which are the health concerns, as it has been proven that daily marijuana use causes an aggressive type of testicular cancer, which comes faster, and more aggressively than an equivalent smoker of cigarettes. I'm disappointed that the escapist is foolish enough to think that marijuana should be legalized, and I hope people change their minds about what drugs do in the world. If anyone cares, I'm 16 and know a TON of people who smoke pot, many of which are my friends, and the strongest advocates for legalizing marijuana, so I have experience in the subject.

But surely criminalizing all drugs is just going to provide bigger business for drug dealers. If you legalized all drugs then at least drug dealers/organized crime will become a lot less powerful. Also people wouldnt be stealing, killing and dieing just to get their next fix, the government could make it affordable and give it to the people who really need it and eventually ween everybody off the dangerous stuff and just let non-lethal drugs be legal.

Making all drugs illegal takes away the rights of people, it doesnt matter how bad it is for them, people should be free to decide what they put into their own body (as long as they're sane)

 

[Marter]

If alcohol and tobacco stay legal, so should pot.

I'm for banning all of them though. They have very little value, and should only be used under specific circumstances.

Yeah, because banning alcohol worked so well before... In an ideal world, it might work, but even if would work, why not let people make that choice for themselves?

Why not give them freedom? Experience has told me that if people are given that type of freedom, they tend to abuse it. It they want to harm themselves, that's their decision, but often times they end up harming others. I'm not okay with that.

And yes, I was talking about my ideal world.

 

[Plurralbles]

we'll start getting somewhere as a society.

I actually want to smoke because I don´t give two fucks about society.

... No, that's not what I meant at all, but you completely made my first part of what I said completely true. You're so, "cool and edgy"! What I meant was that without a bunch of politicians pandering to the dumb, religious masses, we would get somewhere as a society. If the government didn't restrict choice so much as simply work to inform instead, we would move forward as a society.

 

[Plurralbles]

I'd vote to legalize it just so stoners have nothing to talk about anymore.

You don't hang out with many stoners huh?
I would say yes so everyone else can stop talking about it, to help the economy, and to put to rest one of the most racist moves made by the US government outside of the harsh realm of genocide and slavery.

I think the opium banning was a lot more racist. Come on, the US basically enslaves a million chinese and then are offended by their opium- a drug that helped soldiers deal with pain before it could be refined into morphine.

I dream for the day that my backyard has a garden of vegetables and a small patch with poppies, tobacco, and cannabis plants.

. If anyone cares, I'm 16 and know a TON of people who smoke pot, many of which are my friends, and the strongest advocates for legalizing marijuana, so I have experience in the subject.

hehe, you don't have the right to vote. I do. This fact makes me happy.

 

[Therumancer]

Snip

Your whole argument seems to centre on "The Government knows what's better for you than you do". I know that smoking is bad for me, just as I know that drinking booze and eating junk food is bad for me. I was under the impression that I am allowed to live my life and make my choices for myself. In an ideal world, people wouldn't want to get high or drunk. However, we don't live in an ideal world, and people shouln't be forced to do things that are only good for them. As Bill Hicks said, "I'll smoke the cigarettes, I'll get the cancer, I'll deal with the consequencesa".

[/quote]


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I feel it comes down to more than just the goverment, even though it takes the goverment to impose order and pass laws. This is something that affects everyone.

Besides, substance abuse isn't quite the victimless crime people argue it is. Your not the only one who pays the price for your substance abuse, and I'm not talking about abuse/stress to friends and family. I'm talking about the simple use of resources, if you come down with lung cancer your not going to just sit in your room an die a slow, painful death on your own. No, your going to go to the doctor or hospital and say "save me", at which point tons of resources are going to be spent on doing so. Unless your extremely wealthy, this is going to be covered by insurance companies and cumulatively raises everyone's premiums, or comes out of taxpayer money if your very poor and go to most hospitals, which are required to treat you. Even if all they do is make you more comfortable while you die, your still looking at a pretty large use of money, services, and other things. Meaning that except in very rare situations, dealing with the incredibly wealthy, it's not only you that foots the cost of your drug abuse.

Sure, alcohol related problems do the same exact thing, but the less variables the better.

Right now I'm one of those who has argued that people who suffer medical conditions from substance abuse should not receive treatment for those conditions unless they pay for it 100% out of their own pocket. Meaning I think it should be exempted entirely from insurance, and hospitals that receive goverment/state funding shouldn't be treating people who come in having ODed, crashed their car while high, or other things. Part of the cost of illegal behavior.

Legalizing drugs would simply blur what I see as being already a major issue.

Right now the only area of medicine that makes a distinction on this kind of thing are organ transplants. Being a substance abuser will get you taken off the lists.

The point here being that most victimless crimes aren't victimless, when they use resources. *I* the non drug-user have to pay for you poisoning yourself so you can enjoy the effects it has on your body, and cover the ravaging you inflict. All those cases raise insurance premiums, and come out of tax money. I have no objection to covering legitimate illnesses, or injuries, but covering someone who intentionally does drugs and goes "ah well, I'll just deal with the consequences"... no, sorry. I should not have to pick up the tab for that.

 

[Plurralbles]

"...ding shouldn't be treating people who come in having ODed, crashed their car while high, or other things. Part of the cost of illegal behavior."


But you can't OD on marijuana... You seriously can't. At all. Zero possibility. Thanks for playing, but it's simply not possible. You'd have to consume so much that if you did the same with water you would die first of water toxicity than weed's. The toxicity of marijuana smoke is well documented, and is almost zilch.

Actually, your entire, "we can choose to treat you or not based on your lifestyle" is sick and disgusting. I'm not going to debate the merits or damages of legalizing pot as long as you hold such abhorrent viewpoints.

And the, "cost" of it will be decided by the insurance company. They already heighten premiums for tobacco users. These professionals will decide just how much more money a pot smoker must pay and unless you're in their shoes you can't really talk about costs when you don't know what you're talking about.

Someone above who I already think I quoted but haven't told him how full of shit he is yet, here's the scoop on the,"Gateway" drug thing. One: Pot's illegal. What does that do? Makes Alcohol more attractive. Two: What if they don't want to drink but get a similar mind altering affect? Well, "to POT" they say. They go out and get some from a dealer. Who is this dealer? Is he a friend of theirs? SOmeon who cares about them? no? Does he only sell pot? no? Then perhaps he won't be satisfied with them buying pot. Pot's non addicting for the most part. He'd be very happy if they took some of his heroin, as then they would be forced to come back periodically to get their fix. So he pressures them into it saying how much better the experience is with heroin instead of pot. Now, what if pot was legal? Well, it's being sold by a guy who owns a business. He's a pretty straight up guy with the law and has no interest in heroin sale. So he simply sells tobacco, marijuana, and aalchohol in his store to people of age. If he does anything else, he is putting his entire lively-hood, his family, and business, at risk. He's not going to do that. So people might just stay with pot their whole lives or until they grow out of it and just arent' on any drugs at all, deciding as a parent, that they would rather be responsible and level headed at all times. I know, for some people it might just be a slippery slope, but for the most part, people just want to get high and aren't looking for a stronger fix.

 

[GonzoGamer]

I'd vote to legalize it just so stoners have nothing to talk about anymore.

You don't hang out with many stoners huh?
I would say yes so everyone else can stop talking about it, to help the economy, and to put to rest one of the most racist moves made by the US government outside of the harsh realm of genocide and slavery.

I think the opium banning was a lot more racist. Come on, the US basically enslaves a million chinese and then are offended by their opium- a drug that helped soldiers deal with pain before it could be refined into morphine.

I dream for the day that my backyard has a garden of vegetables and a small patch with poppies, tobacco, and cannabis plants.

Sounds like a nice garden.
That's very similar to the real story of weed prohibition. Politician's didn't care about it until the Jazz musicians started attracting a lot of white kids to their shows. Then it became part of their world.

 

[Danzaivar]

everything should be banned and stuff

So um, where would you draw the line? Ban Caffeine? Ban any food that isn't strictly nutritional? At what point does something go from being an essential to a luxury? That's a pretty slippery slope.

--

I'm for legalising pretty much everything. Making it illegal doesn't stop it being used, it just means only criminals profit from it. Hell if heroin was legal al-qaeda and North Korea would lose their primary source of income.

 

[I Max95]

think about it like this
tobacco is legal now and if it was illegal crime would go up same with alchhol
but marijuana is illegal now in most states and in that scenario it is the lesser of two evils
Marijuana kills KILLS! and if something that destroys lives can be taken away from the general population we have the obligation to

i once got into an arguement with my brother over why is it illegal to not wear your seat belt while driving
for the exact same reason, with it on it saves lives

with marijuana illegal lives are saved and even if it brings are economy back you cant put a price on human life
legalizing it would only give people a new slow suicide method alongside alchol, and Tobbacco

if i could i would get rid of every drug out there economy be damned

 

[Plurralbles]

everything should be banned and stuff

So um, where would you draw the line? Ban Caffeine? Ban any food that isn't strictly nutritional? At what point does something go from being an essential to a luxury? That's a pretty slippery slope.

--

I'm for legalising pretty much everything. Making it illegal doesn't stop it being used, it just means only criminals profit from it. Hell if heroin was legal al-qaeda and North Korea would lose their primary source of income.

I disagree. If legalized it would bankrupt the farmers for years. poppy products are the main export of that area and match the total export of all their legal exports. Then they would start growing a larger proportion of food crops but still have their poppies, just not as much and.... okay, yes, legalizing the poppy would be a good thing, but I don't agree that heroin should be legalized. Opium? Sure. But once it's purified and manufactured into heroin, I cant' support that. It's simply too damaging and the damage is clearly documented and is terrible and it IS addicting and even the advocates for the legalization of all drugs admit that heroin is a problem.

I'd vote to legalize it just so stoners have nothing to talk about anymore.

You don't hang out with many stoners huh?
I would say yes so everyone else can stop talking about it, to help the economy, and to put to rest one of the most racist moves made by the US government outside of the harsh realm of genocide and slavery.

I think the opium banning was a lot more racist. Come on, the US basically enslaves a million chinese and then are offended by their opium- a drug that helped soldiers deal with pain before it could be refined into morphine.

I dream for the day that my backyard has a garden of vegetables and a small patch with poppies, tobacco, and cannabis plants.

Sounds like a nice garden.
That's very similar to the real story of weed prohibition. Politician's didn't care about it until the Jazz musicians started attracting a lot of white kids to their shows. Then it became part of their world.

I think it was more likely white women that they cared about. At least, that's the impression I've gotten. The men loved the stuff but then they started getting upset cuz' the women were getting high and well... what does an attention whore do when high? Yep, calls as much attention to herself as possible. In a very sexist age this was a very big problem for them.

Edit: and on quote I read was of a middle aged white politician talking about how, "pot made a black man think he was white"

 

[Billion Backs]

You are the only one who owns your own body.

If you want to do drugs, any drugs, be aware of the health consequences. So yea, if you wanna do meth and crack, it's cool, as long as you're aware and don't whine about it. Responsibility.
Same logic applies to suicide.

Frankly, I don't care if pot gets legalized. Sure, it supports my political views but frankly and sure, it's idiotic to allow alcohol and tobacco despite adverse health effects both have and not allow pot and some other soft drugs that have little to no negative effects...

I already partake, anyways.

 

[Billion Backs]

think about it like this
tobacco is legal now and if it was illegal crime would go up same with alchhol
but marijuana is illegal now in most states and in that scenario it is the lesser of two evils
Marijuana kills KILLS! and if something that destroys lives can be taken away from the general population we have the obligation to

i once got into an arguement with my brother over why is it illegal to not wear your seat belt while driving
for the exact same reason, with it on it saves lives

with marijuana illegal lives are saved and even if it brings are economy back you cant put a price on human life
legalizing it would only give people a new slow suicide method alongside alchol, and Tobbacco

if i could i would get rid of every drug out there economy be damned

Please do explain to me how marijuana kills.

Go on, try it.

And you know what happened when some asshole tried to ban alcohol, right? The people rightfully rose against, some more then others, the latter making a fuckload of money. You know, the mafia, and all.

If there's any cause worth fighting for it's personal liberty. If my country tried to ban alcohol, even though I'm not much of a drinker, I'd be out there smuggling it and violently protesting.

 

[reg42]

Doesn't make much of a difference to me. I don't really smoke anymore, and if I ever feel the need to I could very easily get weed cheaply. Legalizing it would just make those few times when I want some more expensive.

 

[Billion Backs]

Any kind of drug should be made illegal, be it cigarettes, alcohol, or marijuana. Unfortunately because the US is so deeply rooted in the tobacco industry it is hard to make it illegal, and back in the 20's with prohibition we all saw that the banning of alcohol was bad. THESE drugs haven't been, and wont be illegality because they're already widely used and accepted in society. Marijuana on the other hand is known as the gateway drug, and is illegal for many reasons. Not the least of which are the health concerns, as it has been proven that daily marijuana use causes an aggressive type of testicular cancer, which comes faster, and more aggressively than an equivalent smoker of cigarettes. I'm disappointed that the escapist is foolish enough to think that marijuana should be legalized, and I hope people change their minds about what drugs do in the world. If anyone cares, I'm 16 and know a TON of people who smoke pot, many of which are my friends, and the strongest advocates for legalizing marijuana, so I have experience in the subject.

The gateway drug argument is bullshit. It's been proven times and times.

And I'd like some credible links for the cancer thing. For I've been following the results of various researches on marijuana, and I don't remember seeing anything like that.

And suuure, let's ban ALL drugs. Including the medical drugs, the anti-depressants (which don't really do that much good, or so some of my friends say.) and all that.

In my honest opinion too many "anti-drug" people are ignorant sensationalist idiots who don't know what they're protesting against. Drugs are important for medicinal causes. And very often the very same drugs can be used for entertainment, and I'll be damned if some righteous asshole is going to tell me - or anyone else - what to do.

Bad for health? Let's take alcohol as an example. Okay, that's cool. I'm okay with it.

Gaming can be bad for health, sitting in one spot and staring at a screen is a sedentary lifestyle that can lead to heart problems later on, and loss in eye sight. Not to speak of the psychological effects!

Fuck saving lives if it means prohibition and complete control over everyone's life, presumably by government or whoever. I'm my own man, and if I die when I'm in my 40s (not likely, while I'm hardly the most fit person around, I exercise and eat considerably healthily) it's cool with me.

I will never agree with the idea that life is more important then personal liberties. Fuck no.

 

[Srdjan]

Yes, I would be a smart move.

 

[AMMO Kid]

No. If it becomes legal everyone will do it, especially high schoolers, and America will fall as our youth waste their days legally doing drugs.

 

[The Night Shade]

No because most people would use it to drug themselves and not to get less sick but i think tabbaco is way worse and it shouldn't be ilegal to smoke pot or tabbaco

 

[bassdrum]

Legalize it, regulate it, and tax the hell out of it. That would really solve any problems it might cause--no unsafe drug deals/potential additives/other bad things like that, and the taxes would pay for any medical issues.

Besides, marijuana was originally made illegal because tobacco farmers got jealous (don't quote me on that, I'm probably wrong).

 

[daavisb]

i like pot. but you have to look at the economical aspects of that matter to know if to legalize or not.